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Originally Posted by cj2112
Ok so you open it to competitive bidding, so now you've got to spell out precisely what work is the bidders responsibility, which with projects such as these it's nigh impossible to know what you'll find. You also will end up with several delays to the project because of negotiating change orders, forced accounts, etc. I can think of three likely companies that would bid on the job, Kellog Brown and Root, Bechtel, and Shaw. These are companies that are of the size necessary and have demonstrated the ability to do this scale of work. Your talking about building an entire cities infrastructure here, not remodeling a bathroom, there simply isn't a large number of construction companies capable of taking on a project of this scale.
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I have a couple of questions about this position:
1. Why does the entire contract, or even very sizable portions of it, have to go to a single company?
2. If you would say that it's more efficient this way, I would have to point to some of the glaring ineffiiencies we have seen in the KBR work in Iraq, and particular in the area of fiscal accountability, that might cast some doubt on the truth of that claim. I think there are going to be very similar problems for a large company handling multiple sites within the city, and smaller companies handling individual sites, areas etc. A company that large has its own communications issues and mismanagement issues within its various departments.
Although I can certainly see how the current situation arises, with industry consultants being hired from the current administrations...I personally think that if you serve high up in the government beurocracy for, say disaster management, you should have a period of say, 3-5 years, where you can not lobby or consult private industry in that area. These types of agreements are fairly common in private industry as non-disclosure and non-competition agreements, and it might stem some of the current use of high government position as stepping stones to high-pay consulting / lobbying jobs for the obvious network connections that are encumbant with the positions.
You might say, but how will these people get jobs after public office? I would say "change fields." I might suggest judging Arabian thorougbred horses, for instance, as there is an obvious connection to disaster managment.